BUILD - Architecture Awards 2017

94 Build 2017 Architecture Awards aving relocated to Naples from New York City, with Ms. Brown’s former experience under several notable corporate design firms supported her knowledge and practice with projects of commercial and civic nature. Shortly after opening her studio, the firm’s portfolio expanded from predominantly residential design projects into the design of building types of many programs: Industrial, Civic, Religious, Commercial as well as maintaining the strong residential portfolio. The initial venture into commercial design came with the firm’s commission to configure office headquarters for an emerging software developer. The project’s mission was to convey the company’s signature as innovative and contemporary as well as to distinguish the character and operation of the building from what at the time was a predominance of Spanish mission styled building types. Forward thinking design processes and programmatic research with the building owners underpinned ACBA’s opportunity to bring the spirit and sophistication of a structural matrix that manifested its coordinates as an articulated box: a complex program distilled into its core defining elements. The structure became both rational and simple to build but allowed for a nuanced layering of interior and exterior vertical planes expressing with subtlety the geometry of the project’s physical and conceptual framework. Over time ACBA has developed a specialized repertoire of projects that have addressed a variety of commercial and civic building types including: General Aviation Terminal, Theater, urban multi-level Parking Facilities, professional offices, warehouses, retail clothing and household accessories shops, art galleries and restaurants. The firm has also been commissioned to prepare Master Plans and Feasibility studies for multi-use projects comprised of retail, professional and living units. Merchant associations have engaged the firm to develop signage and themed area furniture, lighting and information kiosks in Best Commercial Architecture Design Firm – South West Florida Andrea Clark Brown Architects, P.A. was established in Naples, Florida in 1986, just as the Southwest Florida region began to show significant signs of major growth development. We profiled the firm to find out more about the company and what makes them so successful. Contact: Andrea Clark Brown, Architects, P.A. Contact email: [email protected] Address: 340 8th Street South, Naples, Florida, 34102-6325 USA Tel. 001-239-263-3898 Website: www.andreaclarkbrown.com AR170114 H a busy Old Naples shopping area to serve area tourists and residents in way- finding about the downtown. What has become distinctive about the firm’s design approach is the firm’s direction to integrate the historically appreciated garden city attributes of the Southwest Florida Area into its architectural language. Most notable among the ACBA project designs is a use of an aluminium exoskeleton or trellis structure to intertwine vegetation and supportive green walls into the innovative and contextually sensitive architectural vocabulary that proposes, if not supports, vertical flowering garden treatments and heavy shading elements. In many instances, large overhanging awnings or pergola style canopies are employed to protect from the early morning and late day Florida sunlight and heat. Building orientation, breezeways and positioning of building components to complement sunlight with deep shade underlie the firm’s specific intention to create amenable cooling microclimates within a project’s urban setting. ACBA’s projects are primarily brought to the firm with anticipation of a design outcome that distinguishes the architecture from traditional models and prototypes. Each project is considered a signature for the Owner’s business or brand. This design premise requires the firm to fully understand the Owner’s objectives and goals while developing upon the project’s brief through a series of design options that address the context, environment, operation, appearances, quality and costs. Of high importance for the firm is the motivation to bring forward architectural solutions that are emotionally resonant, pleasantly surprising, enduringly classic and socially beneficial. Recent projects of a very public nature have included the design and construction of twin multi-storey parking facilities serving a main street commercial area that also abuts longstanding serene residential neighbourhoods. The disparity of building scales and the clash of lively commercial activity aside tranquil residential streets presented a decided opportunity for the firm to develop a creative solution to address the conflict